Good People (Blu-ray) (2014)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Action	Featurette-(2:25) Trailer-for 3 other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2014
Running Time	90:27
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Henrik Ruben Genz
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	James Franco Kate Hudson Tom Wilkinson Omar Sy Sam Spruell
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Neil Davidge

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Linear PCM 48/16 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Tom Wright (James Franco) and his wife Anna (Kate Hudson) are a young couple heavily in debt. Tom is renovating the old house they inherited from Anna’s parents but cannot keep up the mortgage payments. They are also behind on their rent and have received an eviction notice to vacate their flat in two weeks. To make ends meet they have sublet their basement flat, and when their tenant dies of a drug overdose they find over ₤200,000 hidden in a bag. We already know from the opening sequence that the money had been stolen at gunpoint from drug dealer Genghis Khan (Omar Sy) by a gang led by Jack Witkowski (Sam Spruell), who had in turn been betrayed by the man who ended up dead in the Wright’s basement.

     Tom and Anna decide to keep the money but to spend only enough to keep the debtors at bay and not draw attention to themselves. However, they arouse the suspicions of Detective Inspector John Halden (Tom Wilkinson) who sets up a surveillance of their bank accounts and notices their increased spending. But Halden may not be the Wrights’ greatest threat; both Khan and Witkowski are on the trail of the money and are not above torture and violence to get it. Can the Wrights extricate themselves from the mess they have got themselves into without losing their lives?

     Good People is the first English language feature film of Danish director Henrik Ruben Genz. He is known mostly for directing episodes of TV shows such as The Killing or Borgen although he shared an Oscar in 2000 for his short film Bror, min bror. Good People is based on a novel of the same name by Marcus Sakey with the script written by Kelly Masterson, who was the screenwriter for the excellent and intelligent Snowpiercer (2013). Perhaps due to the cast and screenwriter expectations for Good People were too high because most critics were not impressed by the film, one going so far as to complain that it lacked coherence, consistency or a satisfying conclusion.

     To my mind this is too harsh. It is true that the plot is predictable and leaves logic in the bin, and most of the characters, including the villains, do stupid things, but that is not unusual in films in this genre. If characters did sensible things, there would not be a film! Some of the dialogue is also very silly; my favourite is the gang member who asks “are you alright?” of a man who is lying on the floor bleeding profusely with a large, pointed wooden stake protruding from his chest! The film is also quite slow-moving for a thriller but it is saved by the cast, especially James Franco, Kate Hudson and Tom Wilkinson, who give good performances, are very watchable and make the whole thing feel less illogical than it is.

     Good People is nothing new and is fairly predictable but is definitely worth watching because of the cast.

Video

     Good People is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The colours of Good People seem to have been reduced leaving a very muted, grey looking film. Skies are grey, greens are dull and the result is a print that is sharp in close-up but less so in wider angles while shadow detail can be indistinct. Blacks are OK, contrast and brightness consistent except in a few scenes with the light source behind the actor, skin tones natural.

     Other than some slight ghosting with movement in front of vertical railings I did not notice any marks or artefacts.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio choices are an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 or an English descriptive audio for the vision impaired, LPCM 2.0 at 1536 Kbps, utilising a female voice.

     Dialogue was clear and easy to understand. The rears and surrounds were not used extensively but did add ambient sound, music, train noises and voices plus some panning effects, such as car tires on gravel. During the fight sequences there were additional gunshots and thumps. The subwoofer added some depth to the gunshots, music and thumps.

    Lip synchronisation was fine.

     The music was primarily a synthesiser score by Neil Davidge that was quite effective. The very James Bondish type theme song over the closing credits is by Serena Ryder.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailers

     Trailers for John Wick (2:26), St. Vincent (2:24) and American Sniper (2:05) play on start-up. They cannot be selected from the menu.

Featurette (2:25)

     A lot of film clips, a tiny bit of on-set footage and comments from the director, two producers and four cast members, all in just over 2 minutes.

     The Region A US Blu-ray version of Good People has the same extra as our Region B release, but is cropped to 1.78:1. A clear win for our Region B.

     Good People is not a bad film; in fact with a good cast it is very watchable as long as you don’t look for a believable plotline or character development.

     The video and audio are good and we, unlike the US, get the proper widescreen aspect ratio. The extras are minor.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall